The top US Republican and Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee are putting the finishing touches on a bill aimed at addressing trade irritants with China and plan to unveil it next week, a spokeswoman for one of the senators said on Tuesday.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, has been working with Sen. Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, on the legislation as an alternative to a popular but controversial bill that threatens China with across-the-board U.S. tariffs if it does not revalue its currency.

U.S. Senators South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham (R) and Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, talk to the media at a hotel lobby in Beijing March 22, 2006. They are co-authoring a bill that threatens to impose a tariff of 27.5 percent on Chinese imports into the United States unless Beijing revalues the yuan "at or near its fair market value." [Reuters]

The senior lawmakers plan to unveil the bill just two weeks before a high-level U.S.-China trade meeting on April 11, at which the Bush administration wants China to take a number of concrete steps to reduce trade tensions.

Chinese President Hu Jintao will also be in Washington in late April for talks with U.S. President George W. Bush.

A spokeswoman for Grassley declined to provide details of the legislation because she said Grassley and Baucus were still finalizing it. Grassley also wants to give other senators a chance to review and co-sponsor the legislation when they return from a break next week, she said.

The Senate is scheduled to vote by March 31 on the bill threatening China with tariffs. Many US lawmakers and manufacturers believe China deliberately undervalues its currency by 15 to 40 percent, giving Chinese companies a huge, unfair price advantage over their American competitors.

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